One Man Two Guvnors
Having thoroughly enjoyed the previous National Theatre Live film performance of The Cherry Orchard I vowed to go the Welfare in Ystradgynlais for the next performance. I almost didn't make it and was rewarded last Thursday by the most hilariously funny performance I have ever seen.
The National Theatre Live is a video of a performance at the National Theatre in London on a prearranged night which is beamed by satellite across the world and shown simultaneously at cinemas across the globe. It attempts to give the impression that you are actually at the theatre and certainly it is far removed to a contrived film version of the play and the next best thing to being in the theatre. The nearest venues for us are in Cardiff, Milford Haven and Ystradgynlais, not much of a recommendation for Swansea. The charge is £10 per person, many times less than the cost of seeing it in the London theatre. By my count they were showing at 129 venues in the UK last Thursday, one of which was an outdoor showing next to the south Bank theatre itself,where the cast were seen taking a bow in person shortly after the performance, rather like viewing the tennis action at Wimbledon from the Hill or the PROMS on a large screen. I think they claimed 400 venues worldwide.
As to the show itself it was five star rated by almost all the quality newspapers and its success is demonstrated that when its season is completed at the National and following touring England and Edinburgh the production will transfer to the Adelphi in November. But for the difficulty of finding actors able to carry out the parts I could see it outliving the Mousetrap. There was lots of very funny sheer slapstick, lots of clever quips and something between a Shakespearean comic plot and a scat on a gangster scene from The Lavender Hill Mob. A skiffle group complete with washboard player, though the T-chest looked very much like a genuine double base, amused the live audience whilst it took its seats, and then slowly modernised to emerge in different forms each time the curtains closed for a change of scenery, even transforming into the Beverley Sisters at one stage.
Shakespearean, for Roscoe mysteriously appears in flesh having apparently risen from the dead two days after his murder, 'thus having broken the previous world record by a day' only to turn out to be his 'identical twin' sister Rachel in disguise who ends up marrying the very gangster Stanley who murdered her brother. This couple, both men at the time, are the two guvnors whom Francis Henshall milks and panics for all he is worth. Francis is played by the star of the show comic actor James Corden.
An east-end criminal, with a daughter 'so dumb they can't make bricks thick enough' to compare is kept out of nick by a fat cat lawyer with an unworldly actor son who ends up with the actor, and Dolly a real life Dolly Parton is paired off with Francis in the finale. The play on which it is based was written in Italian in 1743 though in this adaption it is Brighton and 1963, just 'before intercourse was invented'. See if Shakespeare had lived another 100 years he might have pinched the plot.
The next National Theatre Live event is The Kitchen 6.30 (beware- the early start almost fooled us) on 6 October. These performances now include performances of ballet by the Bolshoi in Russia the first being Esmeralda (based on Victor Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris) on the 9 October at 4pm. I read on my previous visit the scheme hoped to include performances of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, so Opera lovers watch this space.
One more memory of the evening was a woman smiling and saying she found it difficult to recognise me without a grass skirt. I have only twice trod the boards this pantomime was one and the other was an all night carnival at college when I and seven other rugby playing savages helped give a woman an excuse to perform the dance of the seven vales - well we were nearly naked as well.
One more comment the couple sitting next to us told us they were from Gower and kept up a habit of going to theatre in London. Nice to know we aren't the only theatre enthusiasts in Swansea.
U3A GROUP NEWS
I have been following the fortunes of two of the most recent new groups.
RAMBLING
Talking to Harry I find him happy with the progress of this new group which he tells me he now has core support from 9-15 members, an ideal size for a rambling group. He is clearly throwing a great deal of thought and energy into group leading which is obvious from the information and photo records in his regular email feed to the group, including me. Hence the use of a few of his photographs.
Battling the breeze
Lindsay concentrates
Facing the gale
After lunch
SPANISH LEARNING
Another group which has gelled extremely well as currently obvious due to the absence of their excellent tutor Keith Barry because of sickness. None of us have further information at the moment, but I have just sent a handwritten note on behalf of the group to his home address hoping it will be forwarded. (Keith is one of the few members with an aversion to computers and delights in receiving handwritten letters. (I could name some other prominent members sharing this view - but won't.)
Christine Broomhall the convenor is determined to drive the group on and there is a strong response from the others who will share in leading future sessions. I like the emphasis on verbal communication, so far without mention of grammar, and that will continue in self led sessions with the help of recordings.
What started a few months ago as a Course of genuine near beginners is of course moving on and the group will have to wary of too much addition in the near future whilst the new teaching approach is bedded in. I must say it is refreshing to see a group responding via shared self help.
SAVE the HISTORY GROUP
This course has had good attendance and is attempting to reorganise now that Margaret Winter has retired from the role as convenor after 11 successful years. Their September meeting is traditionally the time the group agree the programme for the following year (2011/12). It will be this Friday 23 September at 2.30 in the first floor meeting room of the Environment Centre, Pier Street which runs beside the Evening Post Offices.
Rob James, who organises the Annual Outing, has agreed to act as contact and convenor providing some other member(s) agree to be fully responsible for the monthly lecture programme.
Please attend if at all interested in the future of this group which will fold immediately after the meeting in the absence of the support to take it forward.
GARDENING
Just a few shots I took when the group visited our garden. Last year rain kept us all penned indoors, this year it seemed like a fine day but the heavens opened just as the first visitors arrived with their umbrellas on high. Luckily it turned out to be just a short a sharp shower and the Gazebo had its first outing in a miserable summer. Thinking to make further use we left it up only for the tail end of a hurricane to finally destroy it. The steel frame lives on so we plan to use as a cage for soft fruit next year. 'Waste not want not' is our usual message to the grand children - if anyone can translate that into French please let me know, my attempts brought increasingly increasingly strong guffaws from my Franco-Anglo grandchildren.
Rear view of Joan with Marnie, Margaret Cross and Vicky
My Gazebo on its last legs
Sun at Last
Old timers corner
ARMCHAIR TRAVEL
Just little publicity I am down for a travel presentation on Friday 4 November on our last trip to the state of Karnataka in southern India. I have just reissued the blog of our two months of travel with a myriad of photographs. Anyone interested can view it at
http://karnataka2011.blogspot.com/
GRAND THEATRE
In what is for me a promising new departure they have circulated a DRAMA Newsletter for Autumn 2011 featuring the genuine drama offerings. We are sorry to have missed Bred in Heaven with a well respected director Michael Bogdanov, from the Royal Shakespeare and Wales Theatre companies.
I fully thoroughly recommend Cymbeline by Shakespeare which will played presumably with minimal scenery 'in the round' (square), by and here is the important point the local professional Fluellen Theatre Company Tues 4 to Thurs 6 October in the Arts wing of the Grand Theatre.
Others to have caught my eye include Of Mice and Men in the main theatre on Friday 14 October, a wonderful short story by John Steinbeck, the Lord of the Flies on 20 to Sat 22 October in the Arts Wing.
FLUELLEN at the DYLAN THOMAS CENTRE
Peter Richards, wife and son Hugh, who played Hamlet so well last year in the Arts Wing of the Grand, run a monthly Saturday 1 am presentation of a different playwright, and script in hand perform a section of his work, ideally a one act play. A week ago the subject was George Bernard Shaw and the play was O'Flaherty VC a young Irishman recruiting soldiers for England. Anyone familiar with the history will realise how the Irish hate the English, with good reason So O'Flaherty's line is not that he is recruiting soldiers to fight with the English against Germans (an unrealistic proposition) but that he is recruiting soldiers to fight with Belgians and the French who everyone knows are sworn enemies of the English. His mother has to be kept in the dark or she would explode with anger but she is also two faced in dealings with an English lord (O'Flaherty's boss) to his face and behind his back. Add a second young actress playing the money grabbing girlfriend who is happy for O'Flaherty to bring home the wages, by the only way open to him to earn a living in impoverished Ireland, and you have a scene full of comic possibilities.
Well worth the £5 and well attended again including by a quite different set of U3A members than for the last time I reported. It is a delight to see that Peter, with worldwide experience of directing plays, and Fluellen Theatre are beginning to get the following they deserve. He was also the one doing whole day presentations on Shakespeare plays last winter at the Dylan Thomas Centre which Joan and I enjoyed so much for the humour and demonstrative depth of his insight, but which were embarrassingly poorly attended.
Next lunchtime session Saturday 15 October 'A Celebration of Ibsen' with excerpts from several of his most famous plays. See you there ?
SWANSEA JAZZLAND
This club has to be one of the jewels in Swansea's crown. A weekly stream of one night stands from the best jazz musicians in Britain, at well below London prices where they are mostly based.
I'm returning to one of my first loves after not having the energy to attend for some time, a result of months of intensive modification to house, garden and contents. No we are not about to sell!
This Wednesday 21 September at 8 for 8.30 be sure not to miss guitarist Luis d'Agostino & the Argentinian Connection. Pete Oxley - no less - as a second guitar, an ace trumpeter John Hoare and a British rhythm section make a unique line up. £10 entry reduced to £7 for members.
They will play Jazz of the 50's and 60's. The era of the invention in New York of 'Beebop' by Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker and pianists galore, followed soon after by invention of the 'Cool' in California by Miles Davies, Gerry Mulligan and others. A high point, perhaps the high point, in the development of jazz, my preferred period anyway, it should be a great night.
Having thoroughly enjoyed the previous National Theatre Live film performance of The Cherry Orchard I vowed to go the Welfare in Ystradgynlais for the next performance. I almost didn't make it and was rewarded last Thursday by the most hilariously funny performance I have ever seen.
The National Theatre Live is a video of a performance at the National Theatre in London on a prearranged night which is beamed by satellite across the world and shown simultaneously at cinemas across the globe. It attempts to give the impression that you are actually at the theatre and certainly it is far removed to a contrived film version of the play and the next best thing to being in the theatre. The nearest venues for us are in Cardiff, Milford Haven and Ystradgynlais, not much of a recommendation for Swansea. The charge is £10 per person, many times less than the cost of seeing it in the London theatre. By my count they were showing at 129 venues in the UK last Thursday, one of which was an outdoor showing next to the south Bank theatre itself,where the cast were seen taking a bow in person shortly after the performance, rather like viewing the tennis action at Wimbledon from the Hill or the PROMS on a large screen. I think they claimed 400 venues worldwide.
As to the show itself it was five star rated by almost all the quality newspapers and its success is demonstrated that when its season is completed at the National and following touring England and Edinburgh the production will transfer to the Adelphi in November. But for the difficulty of finding actors able to carry out the parts I could see it outliving the Mousetrap. There was lots of very funny sheer slapstick, lots of clever quips and something between a Shakespearean comic plot and a scat on a gangster scene from The Lavender Hill Mob. A skiffle group complete with washboard player, though the T-chest looked very much like a genuine double base, amused the live audience whilst it took its seats, and then slowly modernised to emerge in different forms each time the curtains closed for a change of scenery, even transforming into the Beverley Sisters at one stage.
Shakespearean, for Roscoe mysteriously appears in flesh having apparently risen from the dead two days after his murder, 'thus having broken the previous world record by a day' only to turn out to be his 'identical twin' sister Rachel in disguise who ends up marrying the very gangster Stanley who murdered her brother. This couple, both men at the time, are the two guvnors whom Francis Henshall milks and panics for all he is worth. Francis is played by the star of the show comic actor James Corden.
An east-end criminal, with a daughter 'so dumb they can't make bricks thick enough' to compare is kept out of nick by a fat cat lawyer with an unworldly actor son who ends up with the actor, and Dolly a real life Dolly Parton is paired off with Francis in the finale. The play on which it is based was written in Italian in 1743 though in this adaption it is Brighton and 1963, just 'before intercourse was invented'. See if Shakespeare had lived another 100 years he might have pinched the plot.
The next National Theatre Live event is The Kitchen 6.30 (beware- the early start almost fooled us) on 6 October. These performances now include performances of ballet by the Bolshoi in Russia the first being Esmeralda (based on Victor Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris) on the 9 October at 4pm. I read on my previous visit the scheme hoped to include performances of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, so Opera lovers watch this space.
One more memory of the evening was a woman smiling and saying she found it difficult to recognise me without a grass skirt. I have only twice trod the boards this pantomime was one and the other was an all night carnival at college when I and seven other rugby playing savages helped give a woman an excuse to perform the dance of the seven vales - well we were nearly naked as well.
One more comment the couple sitting next to us told us they were from Gower and kept up a habit of going to theatre in London. Nice to know we aren't the only theatre enthusiasts in Swansea.
U3A GROUP NEWS
I have been following the fortunes of two of the most recent new groups.
RAMBLING
Talking to Harry I find him happy with the progress of this new group which he tells me he now has core support from 9-15 members, an ideal size for a rambling group. He is clearly throwing a great deal of thought and energy into group leading which is obvious from the information and photo records in his regular email feed to the group, including me. Hence the use of a few of his photographs.
SPANISH LEARNING
Another group which has gelled extremely well as currently obvious due to the absence of their excellent tutor Keith Barry because of sickness. None of us have further information at the moment, but I have just sent a handwritten note on behalf of the group to his home address hoping it will be forwarded. (Keith is one of the few members with an aversion to computers and delights in receiving handwritten letters. (I could name some other prominent members sharing this view - but won't.)
Christine Broomhall the convenor is determined to drive the group on and there is a strong response from the others who will share in leading future sessions. I like the emphasis on verbal communication, so far without mention of grammar, and that will continue in self led sessions with the help of recordings.
What started a few months ago as a Course of genuine near beginners is of course moving on and the group will have to wary of too much addition in the near future whilst the new teaching approach is bedded in. I must say it is refreshing to see a group responding via shared self help.
SAVE the HISTORY GROUP
This course has had good attendance and is attempting to reorganise now that Margaret Winter has retired from the role as convenor after 11 successful years. Their September meeting is traditionally the time the group agree the programme for the following year (2011/12). It will be this Friday 23 September at 2.30 in the first floor meeting room of the Environment Centre, Pier Street which runs beside the Evening Post Offices.
Rob James, who organises the Annual Outing, has agreed to act as contact and convenor providing some other member(s) agree to be fully responsible for the monthly lecture programme.
Please attend if at all interested in the future of this group which will fold immediately after the meeting in the absence of the support to take it forward.
GARDENING
Just a few shots I took when the group visited our garden. Last year rain kept us all penned indoors, this year it seemed like a fine day but the heavens opened just as the first visitors arrived with their umbrellas on high. Luckily it turned out to be just a short a sharp shower and the Gazebo had its first outing in a miserable summer. Thinking to make further use we left it up only for the tail end of a hurricane to finally destroy it. The steel frame lives on so we plan to use as a cage for soft fruit next year. 'Waste not want not' is our usual message to the grand children - if anyone can translate that into French please let me know, my attempts brought increasingly increasingly strong guffaws from my Franco-Anglo grandchildren.
ARMCHAIR TRAVEL
Just little publicity I am down for a travel presentation on Friday 4 November on our last trip to the state of Karnataka in southern India. I have just reissued the blog of our two months of travel with a myriad of photographs. Anyone interested can view it at
http://karnataka2011.blogspot.com/
GRAND THEATRE
In what is for me a promising new departure they have circulated a DRAMA Newsletter for Autumn 2011 featuring the genuine drama offerings. We are sorry to have missed Bred in Heaven with a well respected director Michael Bogdanov, from the Royal Shakespeare and Wales Theatre companies.
I fully thoroughly recommend Cymbeline by Shakespeare which will played presumably with minimal scenery 'in the round' (square), by and here is the important point the local professional Fluellen Theatre Company Tues 4 to Thurs 6 October in the Arts wing of the Grand Theatre.
Others to have caught my eye include Of Mice and Men in the main theatre on Friday 14 October, a wonderful short story by John Steinbeck, the Lord of the Flies on 20 to Sat 22 October in the Arts Wing.
FLUELLEN at the DYLAN THOMAS CENTRE
Peter Richards, wife and son Hugh, who played Hamlet so well last year in the Arts Wing of the Grand, run a monthly Saturday 1 am presentation of a different playwright, and script in hand perform a section of his work, ideally a one act play. A week ago the subject was George Bernard Shaw and the play was O'Flaherty VC a young Irishman recruiting soldiers for England. Anyone familiar with the history will realise how the Irish hate the English, with good reason So O'Flaherty's line is not that he is recruiting soldiers to fight with the English against Germans (an unrealistic proposition) but that he is recruiting soldiers to fight with Belgians and the French who everyone knows are sworn enemies of the English. His mother has to be kept in the dark or she would explode with anger but she is also two faced in dealings with an English lord (O'Flaherty's boss) to his face and behind his back. Add a second young actress playing the money grabbing girlfriend who is happy for O'Flaherty to bring home the wages, by the only way open to him to earn a living in impoverished Ireland, and you have a scene full of comic possibilities.
Well worth the £5 and well attended again including by a quite different set of U3A members than for the last time I reported. It is a delight to see that Peter, with worldwide experience of directing plays, and Fluellen Theatre are beginning to get the following they deserve. He was also the one doing whole day presentations on Shakespeare plays last winter at the Dylan Thomas Centre which Joan and I enjoyed so much for the humour and demonstrative depth of his insight, but which were embarrassingly poorly attended.
Next lunchtime session Saturday 15 October 'A Celebration of Ibsen' with excerpts from several of his most famous plays. See you there ?
SWANSEA JAZZLAND
This club has to be one of the jewels in Swansea's crown. A weekly stream of one night stands from the best jazz musicians in Britain, at well below London prices where they are mostly based.
I'm returning to one of my first loves after not having the energy to attend for some time, a result of months of intensive modification to house, garden and contents. No we are not about to sell!
This Wednesday 21 September at 8 for 8.30 be sure not to miss guitarist Luis d'Agostino & the Argentinian Connection. Pete Oxley - no less - as a second guitar, an ace trumpeter John Hoare and a British rhythm section make a unique line up. £10 entry reduced to £7 for members.
They will play Jazz of the 50's and 60's. The era of the invention in New York of 'Beebop' by Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker and pianists galore, followed soon after by invention of the 'Cool' in California by Miles Davies, Gerry Mulligan and others. A high point, perhaps the high point, in the development of jazz, my preferred period anyway, it should be a great night.
1 comment:
Thankyou Brian.
Nice to see you back again- another great Blog: I am always amazed by your energy and breadth of interests.
The food/fasting article is thought provoking! Hearty congratulations.
U3A Swansea is indeed in good fettle. Longer term developments are in place, and the future looks bright, thanks to the enthusiasm of our Chairman, Committee, and the Convenors.
Your contributions, Brian, over the years played no small part in it all
Being a Convenor (or a helper)is a grand opportunity for members, old and new, to gain a great deal of fun and satisfaction..
As I, and many others, have done.
Bob Hughes
PS As always, I also commend to members Adrian's excellent website
(www.u3aSwansea.org.uk)
as the additional source of information.
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